


Middle Ground

by AkaUsa



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 08:24:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10081361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkaUsa/pseuds/AkaUsa
Summary: 800 years ago, Shinigami and the witches came upon an agreement, for the better of both worlds.In between lessons about the human/witch cohabitation, Maka goes to the library to meet a special someone.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written in french a few years ago. I wanted to try translating it in english.

"In the twelve century, Shinigami's troups and the Witches started negociating in order to form an alliance. Because of the creation of demon weapons in massive quantities by the Heretic Arachne, the balance between the two strengths seemed on the verge of being destroyed. Even after her defeat at Shinigami's hands, tensions were at the highest point possible. In order to avoid an irreversible conflict, they founded the project Shibusen: a special school for meisters, demon weapons and young witches. By making the next generation grow up together, banishing corrupt witches and making the others respect the order in exchange for their freedom, a new harmony could be created between old foes."

Maka was rereading her paper while keeping an eye on the big clock at the center of the classroom's dais. She checked that she had correctly noted the dates of the various cohabiting humans/witches laws as well as the ones forbidding the creation of any Death Scythe. She fixed a few spelling mistakes at the same time then finally put down her pen. A few minutes later, the bell rang and she went down the aisle to give back her work.

History wasn't initially her favorite subject but it wasn't a reason to rush the job and get a grade below her usually very high average. In fact, she had recently taken much interest in the fascinating secrets of Witch History.

Maka slid out of the room quickly as other students tried frantically to put one last line on the paper, gave their own essays to the professor or talked with their friends about the exam. In the corridors, weapons, meister and witches in training were everywhere, walking, chatting and bickering in a great brouhaha that Maka was used not paying attention to. She was going her own way, feet beating the slabs of the floor with energy, almost frantic. Like every day, she went in the direction of the school library.

Each time the big doors closed behind her, the mood of this special place would wrap over her soul like the sweetest feeling in the world. The room had both the size and silence of a cathedral, its air istelf seemed different. From the windows, light was falling in rays tainted by golden dust, shining upon the filled shelves with the grace of the most gorgeous stained-glass. And in this holy place, there was one person that Maka especially awaited to meet every day.

She found her at one table in the back, sitting next to a huge pile of old tomes. Sometimes her hand would scribble something in a notebook, sometimes she would look for a particular page in one of the many volumes she was consulting.

Maka put her own things on the table and, feeling the sharp eyes turning towards her, offered a greeting.

"Good morning, miss Medusa."

The witch smiled.

"Hello Maka."

Her fine smile, sweet voice and gentle look sent little shivers in Maka's backbone. This expression was one that few people had the chance to see and in those occasions, it often felt as if it was only destined to her.

For most of Shibusen, Medusa Gorgon was a reclusive and dangerous woman, of ominous renown. The alliance made between the Elder Witch and the great Shinigami had only been possible because Medusa prompted her sister's downfall, yet she was badly considered for it. This betrayal towards her one and only family, this sororicide by proxy, had gained her the aversion of both the humans and her own kind. Medusa was looked at with suspicion and contempt for an act that could have been seen as heroic if only it had not involved her own flesh and blood.

Maka couldn't say that she never had felt any mistrust towards her. She would have never gotten this close of the witch so feared and fantasized about by everyone if they had not been so often in the library at the same time. At first, she had feigned to not see her, for what the witch did was not her business after all and she certainly didn't want to look like those students whispering wildly every time they would cross her road. After a while, she got used to her presence in the room and didn't even need to make an effort not to pay attention.

Thus, one day, when Medusa passed her a book she was looking for in the highest shelves without locating it, thanking her had only been the natural and polite thing to do. It didn't bother her to pay back the favor at another time, nor to exchange a few words like she would with any acquaintance that she met there.

Within months of the occasional polite chatting, Medusa gave her a bit of advice on which books to pick on some subjects she had trouble finding anything for and that may have been at that time that they sincerly started getting closer. Maka liked being able to discuss her readings and Medusa's book choices were often deeply intriguing. She was discovering texts going outside of the norms and her own outlook. Sometimes she would clash with them or their complexity would repel her but when Medusa explained her own point of view on what it all meant, everything then became perfectly clear and strangely fascinating. She felt like she was learning more with her in a few months than in years of studying.

As she was spending even more time than before in Shibusen's library, she sometimes neglected her practical classes in weapons handling. Though maybe she had already lost the will to persevere since the divorce of her parents, as if it had broken the idea itself of the meister/weapon partnership's model.

She had initially chosen a scythe as a partner, maybe in part to emulate her mother. But as her father's growing infidelities became more and more unbearable, Maka chose to stop her partnership there. Soul and herself had very different personalities anyway and didn't seem to have many reasons to stay together so maybe it was for the best for both of them. After that, she stuck to temporary partners, like most students did. Quite a few teachers considered that versatility in weapons handling was a big asset, offering more opportunities and positions in the organisation. It could also be a great help in many critical situations.

However, for a while, Maka had been paying more attention to another part of Shibusen's schooling program. She had observed with great interest the particular relationship between apprentices witches and their mentors, who instructed them in practical magic as well as the mysterious and ancient culture of their ancestors. While everyone was allowed to assist to classes about Magic History, it gave the other students only a glimpse of the depths their past contained.

Maka envied them a bit. And when she looked at Medusa studying her papers and tomes, she would remember the rumors and whispers in the halls claiming that never in all the years she had spent at Shibusen had she ever chosen an apprentice. Her mind would then drift to silly, absurd ideas, mad dreams of how she would have loved to be Medusa's apprentice. Not just spending a few hours a week talking of various books with her but all her studying time. Exploring in great details all the subjects her current teachers only seemed to skim through would have been idyllic.

Of course, she wasn't a witch and would never be able to use magic but since Medusa had never picked any witchling to train in hundred of years, she clearly wasn't interested in offering her knowledge to one of her kind. She seemed more focused in scientific domains than purely magical ones anyway, which not all witches were interested in. So Maka could always dream.

Some noise disturbed her sweet thoughts. Doctor Stein had joined them to talk with his colleague. Maka couldn't help frowning while watching them.

It wasn't that she disliked the doctor, he was a good teacher and while he could get quite scary, she didn't have anything against him in general. There was just something that she couldn't name, in his interactions with Medusa, that irritated her. Every exchanged glance and conniving little smile felt like a secret she couldn't pierce. It bothered her to think that even if she knew parts of Medusa that the witch wasn't showing to anyone else, some others were hidden from her.

Sometimes, the clear and cold eyes of Stein would slowly turn towards her and it seemed a bit like a provocation or an attempt to tell her she wasn't welcome and should have left them to their business. In objection, she would linger on purpose in her reading and homework, refusing to leave before the professor. She usually managed to win this silly fight as he would run out of subjects he could evoke in front of suspicious ears but she bitterly knew that they were talking of plenty other things, every time she wasn't there.

After a few minutes of interminable discussion, Stein finally left their table to go look in some other section of the library. Maka sighed and went back to her book, only to realize she had completly lost her line.

Medusa had gone back to her studies too but her head rose slightly to see the book from which Maka was quickly turning back the pages to remind herself of what she had been reading.

"So you're interested in Death Scythes? An interesting but dangerous subject to mention."

Hearing her talk like this made her blush. Sometimes, when she was with Medusa, she forgot that some subjects were considered taboos. Studying the heretics who had sacrificed witches for the purpose of creating high-powered weapons wouldn't have been well considered by most of her sisters.

"There was a question in today's exam to which I wasn't sure I had answered in the best way", she said as if to justify herself, in front of this warm and benevolant smile.

Medusa shut down her old tome and leaned towards her, almost with the air of a conspirator.

"What can you tell me about Asura?"

He voice was a whisper and faced with this sudden question, Maka's heart started beating madly in her chest. Almost stuttering, she started her reply, trying to respond with a calm and sure tone, eager to please despite the butterflies dancing in her stomach. It seemed as if a block of ice had been stuck to the back of her neck, making her shiver while she was fighting not to let the words come out of her mouth all at the same time and her lips, her cheeks, her forhead were burning up under the effort.

What was causing all those reactions inside her was without a doubt Medusa's unfazed eyes, in which the lights were reflecting promises of so many incredible secrets. Maka could only hope that if she gave her the right answers, the witch would then share with her even a tiny part of her knowledge. And she desperately wanted to drink from the cup of wisdom, to the last drop.

Even more crazy than her dream to become Medusa's apprentice, she was hoping in the deepest part of her heart that she could one day become her partner. Which was absolutely absurd because Medusa wasn't a weapon and yet this word meant everything she wanted but wasn't able to put a name on. The conniving looks, the mysterious smiles, she didn't want to let any of them to doctor Stein, she wanted them all for herself. What she wanted above all was a special, an inviolable relationship, that time and resentment couldn't break with the same ease her idiot of a father had done to every bonds their family had.

For now, they were separated by a desk and piles of books but Maka hoped deep down that in the future, she would know how to catch up to Medusa and become her equal. That she would gaze into the yellow eyes and decrypt each mystery and hidden truths.

 


End file.
